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The  Thirty-Third  Regiment  Illinois  Infantry  in  the  Civil  War 

1861-1865 


PREPARED  BY  CAPT.  J.  H.  BURNHAM 

At  the  request  of  the  Directors  of  the  Illinois  Historical  Society  for  the  J9J2 
Annual  Meeting  of  that  Society. 


The  Regimental  Association  at  its  annual  meeting  Oct.  9th,  1912,  approved  it  as  a  part  of  the  Regi 


mental  History. 


JAMES  H.  FLECKER,  President. 
VIRGIL  G.  WAY,  Secretary-Treasurer. 


It  is  not  ray  purpose  to  furnish  many  of  the 
details  of  the  history  of  the  Thirty-Third  Illinois  In 
fantry  Regiment.  Very  few  Illinois  organizations 
have  been  so  fully  described  in  the  military  annals  of 
the  state.  Yet  as  these  technical  military  records  are 
generally  destitute  of  other  valuable  information  for 
the  benefit  of  general  readers,  I  have  therefore 
thought  best  to  furnish  a  few  historical  side  lights, 
which  must  not,  however,  be  allowed  to  obscure  the 
brilliant  heroism  and  patriotism  of  the  actors,  and 
which  it  may  be  hoped  will  bring  their  actions  into 
clearer  view. 

Those  of  us  who  remember  the  tremendous 
exertions  needed  during  the  war  to  fill  the  ranks  of 
the  army  and  keep  them  filled,  are  well  aware  that, 
there  were  good  reasons  for  the  attempts  that  were 
made,  especially  in  the  largest  states,  to  group  to 
gether  certain  nationalities  or  classes  of  men  into 
special  regiments.  Thus  the  Nineteenth  Illinois  In  • 
fantry,  one  of  the  best  known  of  the  earlier  organiza 
tions,  was  called  the  Chicago  Zouaves,  from  the  fact 
that  a  portion  of  the  regiment  practiced  the  famous 
Zouave  drill. 

There  was  also  in  1861,  the  well  known  German 
Regiment,  the  Twenty-Fourth  Illinois  Infantry, 
called  the  First  Hecker  Regiment,  and  again  in  1862, 
during  our  greatest  out-pouring  of  volunteers,  the 
Eighty-Second  Illinois  was  often  called  the  Second 
Hecker  Regiment. 

The  Forty-Fifth,  raised  mostly  in  Jo  Daviess  and 
Stephenson  Counties,  was  called  the  Lead  Mine  Regi- 
The  Sixty-Third  was  called  the  Preachers' 
and  contained  a  large  sprinkling  of  South 
ern  Illinois  Baptists. 


The  Thirty-Third  Illinois  Infantry  Regiment  was 
quite  well  known  for  the  first  years  of  the  war,  as 
the  Normal  or  School  Teachers'  Regiment.  These 
various  designations  by  nationalities  or  otherwise 
were  of  great  assistance  to  the  public  in  their  almost 
vain  efforts  to  keep  track  of  such  favorite  organiza 
tions  as  people  desired  to  follow,  through  the  news 
papers  or  other  reports,  and  I  shall  proceed  to  en 
large  somewhat  on  the  early  history  of  that  regiment, 
in  order  to  illustrate  more  fully  the  importance  of 
these  special  designations  and  the  influence  they 
exerted  upon  the  patriotic  movements  of  the  times, 
after  which,  I  shall  give  a  brief  condensation  of  its 
military  history  with  other  historical  military  side 
lights. 

A  few  months  previous  to  the  out-break  of  the 
Civil  War,  just  as  the  war  clouds  began  to  threaten, 
the  legislature  of  this  state  was  called  upon  to 
appropriate  quite  a  sum  to  finish  paying  the  cost  of 
the  new  Normal  building  at  Bloomington — the  village 
of  Normal  not  then  having  organized.  The  donations 
of  the  citizens  of  Bloomington  and  of  the  County  of 
McLean,  promised  in  the  spring  of  1857,  were  so 
enormously  depreciated  by  the  panic  of  the  autumn 
of  the  same  year,  that  the  large  building  then  started, 
finished  in  1861,  needed  the  state's  assistance  to  the 
extent  of  $65,000,  which  was  generously  given  by  the 
state  in  February,  1861,  at  a  time  when  the  dark 
shadow  of  the  coming  rebellion  might  well  have  ob 
scured  that  educational  revival,  which  had  made  such 
a  promising  beginning  by  the  passage  of  the  Free 
School  Law  of  1855,  which  gave  that  tremendous  im 
petus  to  the  cause  of  the  public  schools,  which  are 
now  the  pride  of  the  people  of  Illinois. 


It  will  do  no  harm  to  examine  the  status  of 
educational  matters  in  1861.  The  people  of  this  state 
between  1850  and  1860  had  been  aroused  to  the  im 
portance  of  free  schools,  to  a  degree  almost  incom 
prehensible  to  the  present  generation.  They  had 
seen  suddenly  spring  up  a  free  school  system  with  a 
State  Superintendent,  with  school  districts  possessing 
boards  of  school  directors,  which  had  almost  absolute 
power  to  locate  and  build  new  school  houses,  and 
with  liberal  authority  to  raise  money  for  school  pur 
poses. 

The  change  from  semi-subscription  schools  to 
the  beginning  of  a  better  public  school  system,  Ir.ul 
created  a  demand  for  a  great  many  well  educated 
school  teachers,  and  this  demand  by  1857  had  culmin 
ated  in  the  law  organizing  the  State  Normal  Uni 
versity,  which  within  a  few  months  thereafter  was 
located  at  Bloomington.  The  use  of  a  part  of  the 
state's  college  and  seminary  funds  for  this  institu 
tion  was  one  reason  for  giving  this  Normal  school 
the  name  of  the  university,  though  there  was  another 
'potent  reason,  which  was  the  rising  prospect  for 
combining  with  this  pioneer  Normal,  the  expected 
State  University. 

The  subsequent  organization  of  this  State  Uni 
versity  in  1866,  after  the  national  appropriation  of 
public  land  for  the  support  of  agricultural  colleges, 
gave  Bloomington  and  McLean  County  such  hope  for 
the  location  of  this  great  University,  that  they  made 
the  magnificent  and  unparalleled  offer  of  $550,000.00 
for  its  location,  and  the  loss  of  this  valuable  educa 
tional  institution  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  those 
who  made  the  offer.  As  an  active  laborer  in  this 
great  effort,  when  I  happened  to  be  the  editor  of  the 
Bloomington  Pantagraph,  I  can  give  assurance  that 
time  has  not  as  yet  fully  alleviated  my  disappoint 
ment  of  forty-six  years  ago. 

The  Illinois  Normal  was  the  first  school  of  its 
kind  west  of  the  Alleghany  mountains  and  it  focused 
the  attention  of  the  educational  people  of  the  entire 
West.  Its  first  class  of  ten  graduated  in  1860  and 
the  next  class,  of  which  I  was  a  member,  finished  the 
course  in  1861,  in  the  worst  of  the  nation's  agonizing 
throes  of  the  great  Civil  War. 

Immediately  after  the  out-break  of  the  war  in 
April,  the  Normal  students  organized  themselves  in 
to  what  was  called  the  Normal  Rifles,  and  by  the  end 
of  the  school  year  on  July  first,  had  become  somewhat 
proficient  under  a  hired  drill  master.  The  threaten 
ing  war  clouds  warned  us  that  our  services  would 
soon  be  needed,  although  the  nation's  shortage  of 
arms  and  military  officers  very  nearly  paralyzed  all 
efforts  to  place  men  in  the  field,  and  enlistments  by 
the  middle  of  July  had  practically  ceased  in  all  of 
the  northern  states. 

President  Charles  E.  Hovey  of  the  Normal,  began 
to  form  plans  to  raise  a  regiment  of  Normal  teachers, 
pupils,  college  students  and  educational  men  immed 
iately  after  the  close  of  the  summer  term,  and  the 
members  of  the  Normal  Rifles  determined  before  thev 


started  for  their  homes  in  different  parts  of  the  state, 
to  enlist  as  a  Company  rather  than  to  scatter  them 
selves  in  different  companies,  should  the  Government 
call  for  more  volunteers.  This  call  came  immediate 
ly  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  which  took  place  July 
Twenty-first. 

President  Hovey  was  in  Washington  offering  to 
raise  a  new  regiment  a  few  days  before  the  sad  Bull 
Run  defeat,  but  the  Government  officers  were  then 
confident  that  the  war  was  about  over,  and  blindly 
refused  all  such  offers.  Very  different  was  the  case 
the  day  after  the  battle,  and  President  Hovey,  now 
Colonel  Hovey,  came  home  with  full  power  to  raise 
the  regiment.  He  issued  a  call  in  the  newspapers 
and  the  response  was  immediate.  The  patriotism  of 
Illinois  blazed  out  at  that  period  with  intense  bril 
liancy.  Regiment  after  regiment  was  offered  for 
three  years,  or  during  the  war.  Between  July  and 
December,  1861,  the  regimental  numbers  ran  from  the 
Twenty-eighth  to  the  Fifty-eighth,  and  the  state  was 
one  great  camp  of  military  organization,  instruction 
and  patriotic  devotion. 

Over  two-thirds  of  the  sixty  young  men  in  the 
infant  Normal  volunteered,  together  with  several  of 
the  professors,  then  called  teachers,  and  two  or  three 
members  of  the  State  Board  of  Education. 

The  full  regiment  of  one  thousand  men  leaving 
Camp  Butler  for  the  front  on  September  nineteenth, 
included  quite  a  number  of  college  boys,  teachers  and 
educational  men,  together  with  the  Normal  nucleus, 
giving  the  regiment  altogether  some  right  to  be  called 
the  "Normal  Regiment,"  by  which  title  it  was  known 
through  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  the  war. 

There  was  no  other  Western  regiment  which  con 
tained  such  a  large  number  of  students  and  teachers, 
except  the  Forty-Third  Ohio.  The  Colonel  of  this 
regiment  was  James  A.  Garfield,  who  was  President 
of  Hiram  College  at  Mentor,  Ohio,  on  the  Western 
Reserve.  I  well  remember  of  hearing  Colonel  Hovey 
tell  us  of  this  student  regiment  just  as  we  were  about 
to  leave  Normal,  and  that  he  then  said,  "Watch  that 
man  Garfield."  I  watched  him,  and  when  he  was 
nominated  for  the  Presidency  in  1880,  I  gave  rriy 
most  enthusiastic  efforts  to  assist  in  that  election. 

It  happened  in  the  Vicksburg  Campaign  at  the 
battle  of  Champion's  Hill  in  May,  1863,  that  Garfield's 
Regiment,  the  Forty-Third  Ohio,  and  our  Normal 
regiment  took  part  together  on  the  skirmish  line  of 
that  important  battle. 

There  was  no  other  Western  Normal  School  ex 
cept  ours  in  1861.  Our  Normal  organization  couplf  d 
with  the  fact  that  such  schools  were  hoping  to  meet 
a  vital  need  of  the  Western  school  system,  gave  a 
certain  prominence  to  the  organization  that  made  it 
very  easy  to  fill  our  ranks  with  some  of  the  best 
material  in  the  whole  army,  and  yet  there  was  after 
all,  but  a  trifling  superiority  over  other  regiments  o 
the  same  year,  and  perhaps  we  were  somewhat  jfrgTjtJ'' 
tic,  and  we  may  have  well  deserved  some  of  t/he  sai 


casms  concerning  us  which  were  floating  around  in 
military  circles. 

I  have  dwelt  somewhat  at  length  upon  the  distinc 
tive  origin  of  the  Thirty-Third  Infantry  because  to  a 
certain  extent,  it  helps  illustrate  the  importance  felt 
by  the  general  public  in  the  efforts  to  separate  the 
different  companies,  regiments,  batteries  and  brigades 
from  among  other  commands  of  the  immense  armies 
in  the  field,  and  to  trace  their  military  histories 
through  their  different  movements,  marches,  organ 
izations  and  battles  of  that  great  conflict.  Even  with 
all  of  these  occasional  aids,  the  friends  of  different 
organizations  very  often  failed  to  know  where  to  look 
for  accounts  of  their  loved  ones,  whether  they  were 
n  the  swamps  of  the  South,  in  the  operations  on  the 
julf,  or  in  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

It  was  simply  impossible  for  the  general  public 
to  remember  the  military  designations  of  the  different 
organizations. 

The  Students'  Company  at  Normal,  the  Normal 
Rifles,  became  the  nucleus  of  the  first  company  con 
sisting  of  about  one  hundred  men,  and  was  called 
Company  A.  Besides  this,  two  whole  companies — C 
and  G — were  raised  in  McLean  County,  and  the  other 
seven  companies  came  from  various  counties  like 
Bureau,  Pike,  Christian,  Knox,  Stark,  LaSalle  and 
others. 

The  month  of  August,  1861,  when  most  of  the 
young  men  volunteered,  was  a  remarkable  date  in 
>ur  nation's  history.  The  disgraceful  defeat  at  Bull 
Run  had  been  the  means  of  thoroughly  alarming  the 
North.  There  was  now  no  idea  of  coercing  the  South 
in  ninety  days  as  there  had  been  in  May  and  June. 
A  long  war  and  bloody  one,  instead  of  three  months 
of  picnicing,  was  now  plainly  in  sight.  About  all  of 
the  patriotic  logic  we  had  to  cheer  us  was  about  like 
this:  If  a  state  should  secede  from  the  National 
Government,  a  county  could  secede  from  the  state. 
If  all  of  these  varieties  of  secession  could  flourish, 
there  could  be  no  government  at  all.  If  we  were  to 
have  no  governments,  we  should  have  bloody  anarchy, 
and  rather  than  live  in  anarchy,  we  had  better  take 
our  chances  with  "Uncle  Sam,"  who  appeared  to  be 
gathering  quite  a  vigorous  army,  and  if  we  would 
all  stand  together,  we  could  at  least  look  forward 
to  a  settled  government  at  some  time  in  the  future, 
even  if  we  should  be  obliged  in  the  end  to  let  the 
'erring  sisters  go  in  peace,"  as  was  recommended 
by  more  than  one  of  our  country's  leaders. 

The  time  had  not  yet  come,  though  it  arrived  in 
that  still  more  gloomy  August  one  year  later,  when 
many  men  of  family  must  volunteer.  Our  own  ranks 
were  mostly  filled  with  mere  boys.  In  the  company  in 
which  I  enlisted  only  four  were  married  men.  Buoy 
ant  hope  was  on  every  hand.  No  one  appeared  to  be 
ifraid  of  disaster.  Disease  had  no  terrors.  The  one 
great  longing  of  every  soldier,  at  least  in  appearance, 
was  to  engage  in  a  fight  with  the  enemy.  We  hun 
gered  and  thirsted  for  military  knowledge,  and  en 


tered  uron  our  duties  with  light  hearts,  little  think 
ing  before  the  end  of  three  years'  enlistment  our 
regiment,  with  many  others,  would  voluntarily  re- 
(Milist  for  another  three  years,  and  become  a  part 
of  that  proud  army  of  re-enlisted  veterans  whose 
valor  and  patriotism  finally,  in  1864  and  1865,  did 
more  to  end  the  war  and  discourage  the  enemy,  than 
all  the  battles  of  the  first  three  years  of  agonizing 
efforts. 

The  Students'  Company  A  represented  thirty- 
one  different  counties,  the  whole  regiment  contained 
men  from  sixty-seven  different  counties,  and  it  is 
believed  no  other  Illinois  organization  contained  so 
many  men  from  different  counties,  making  this  regi 
ment  almost  truly  a  representation  of  the  whoV; 
state. 

Its  history  has  been  written  more  fully  perhaps 
than  that  of  any  other  regiment.  It  is  contained  in 
the  official  records  of  the  rebellion;  in  the  Adjutant  - 
general's  reports  of  both  the  nation  and  the  state;  in 
official  form  with  all  of  the  state's  military  organiza 
tions,  in  both  national  and  state  records.  Besides 
this,  in  1902  the  survivors  of  the  Thirty-Third  Regi 
ment  published  a  complete  and  very  full  history, 
largely  written  by  Colonel  I.  H.  Elliott,  now  living  in 
New  Mexico,  and  who  was  Adjutant-general  of  Illin 
ois  under  Governor  Cullom  in  1880  to  1884.  The 
whole  book  was  edited  and  partially  written  by  Mr. 
V.  G.  Way  of  Gibson  City,  a  member  of  this  Society. 
It  is  said  by  the  best  authorities  to  be  a  model  regi 
mental  history,  especially  in  its  full  roster  account 
ing  for  the  over  two  thousand  different  soldiers,  who 
were  at  one  time  and  another  upon  its  muster-rolls. 

Judge  A.  O.  Marshall  of  Joliet,  also  a  member  of 
this  Society,  one  of  our  college  students,  who  came 
from  Knox  College,  published  soon  after  the  war,  his 
"Army  Life  or  Recollections  of  a  Private  Soldier" 
that  had  a  large  sale  in  the  northern  part  of  the  stare, 
and  in  various  other  publications  this  regiment  has 
been  well  remembered.  Judge  Marshall  was  a  mem 
ber  of  Company  A,  to  which  I  belonged. 

When  the  Thirty-Third  was  ordered  from  Camp 
Butler  to  the  Potomac  in  1861,  there  was  great  in 
dignation  because  it  was  the  soldiers'  opinion  there 
would  be  no  fighting  in  Virginia.  Our  officers  spent 
the  whole  night  in  telegraphing  to  Washington  to 
have  our  destination  changed  to  the  Western  Depart 
ment,  where  General  Fremont  was  the  military  idol 
of  the  army.  We  laid  on  the  ground  at  the  station 
all  that  night  at  classic  Jimtown  and  were  delighted 
in  the  morning  to  find  our  destination  was  changed 
to  St.  Louis. 

While  guarding  Pilot  Knob  and  the  Iron  Moun 
tain  Railroad  we  were  fortunate  enough  on  October 
21,  1801,  to  be  slightly  engaged  in  the  battle  of  Fred- 
ericktown,  Missouri,  a  mere  skirmish,  but  heralded  as 
one  of  the  first  successful  battles  of  the  war,  and  we 
began  to  feel  we  were  becoming  of  some  military 
consequence.  Frontier  guarding  and  frontier  marc'v 


ing  were  our  monotonous  duties  until  July  7,  1862, 
when  we  again  met  the  enemy  at  what  was  called 
Cache  River  or  Cotton  Plant  in  Arkansas,  a  success 
ful  engagement  of  considerable  importance,  while  we 
were  on  the  march  down  the  White  River.  Colonel 
Hovey  was  in  command  of  our  detachment,  was 
wounded  and  was  made  Brigadier-general  for  his 
gallantry. 

Our  Students'  Company  A  was  in  the  advance  on 
this  occasion  when  its  captain,  L.  H.  Potter,  Normal 
Professor  of  Literature,  was  severely  wounded.  I 
was  First  Lieutenant  of  the  Company  and  when  the 
colonel  of  the  regiment  and  the  captain  of  my  Com 
pany  were  both  promoted,  my  own  rank  was  advanced 
one  step,  and  I  became  the  captain  and  thus  remained 
until  April,  1863,  when  I  resigned  on  account  of 
weakness  from  typhoid  and  malarial  fevers. 

It  was  the  fate  of  this  regiment  to  be  on  duty 
during  the  summer  of  1862  in  the  malarious  district 
of  Eastern  Arkansas  and  Western  Mississippi.  This 
region  is  now  well  known  as  a  marvelously  rich  cot 
ton  country,  and  even  before  the  war,  its  richest 
lands  were  occupied  by  money  making  planters,  who 
went  to  the  hills  or  to  the  North  during  the  hot 
months,  leaving  their  slaves  and  overseers  to  raise 
and  gather  the  cotton.  Very  few  white  people  dared 
to  brave  the  deadly  climate,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that 
our  laborious  scouting  and  foraging  duties  brought 
on  dangerous  sickness.  The  sickness  was  so  serious 
that  early  in  October  the  whole  regiment  was  sent 
North,  as  a  sanitary  measure,  to  a  point  near  St. 
Louis. 

In  the  winter  of  1862  and  1863  we  were  marched 
and  counter-marched  through  southeastern  Missouri 
to  no  purpose,  seeing  no  enemy,  hearing  of  none,  not. 
even  firing  a  gun,  and  we  solemnly  believe,  even  to 
this  day,  that  no  one  at  Washington  ever  knew  of  this 
winter  campaign.  But  our  sick  men  recovered  their 
health  so  that  when  we  were  ordered  to  join  the 
Vicksburg  Campaign  in  March,  1863,  the  regiment 
was  in  tip-top  health,  ready  for  any  duty,  but  ex 
tremely  unwilling  to  again  take  up  the  line  of  march 
in  Lousiana  or  Mississippi  near  Vicksburg  in  that  well 
known  malarious  region.  Here  it  became  a  portion 
of  that  grand  army  of  Illinois  soldiers  who  formed  a 
large  part  of  General  Grant's  magnificent  Vicksburg 
army  of  seventy  thousand  men.  From  this  time  for 
ward  for  many  months  it  became  attached  to  General 
McClernand's  Thirteenth  Army  Corps.  Personally, 
I  was  a  member  of  this  Corps  only  ten  days,  and  was 
not  in  the  Vicksburg  Campaign. 

The  battles  around  Vicksburg,  and  the  famous 
Charge  on  Vicksburg  constitute  a  very  large  portion 
of  the  history  of  the  Civil  War.  Defeat  after  defeat 
in  1862  caused  the  world  to  doubt  whether  the  Missis 
sippi  River  ever  would  be  opened  to  the  sea.  Vicks 
burg,  until  July  4,  1863,  was  the  pivotal  place  upon 
which  rested  our  hopes  of  the  successful  issue  of  the 
war,  even  as  in  1803,  the  possession  of  Louisiana 
meant  the  probable  perpetuity  of  the  Union. 


When  General  Grant  ordered  the  grand  move 
ment  of  his  troops,  a  part  of  his  army  marched  over 
land  along  the  levee  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  out  of  the  range  of  Vicksburg's  "heavy  guns. 
These  troops  then  crossed  the  river  in  the  steamboats, 
which  had  bravely  and  successfully  run  past  the 
Vicksburg  batteries.  The  Thirty-Third  took  an  active 
part  in  that  series  of  great  victories  known  as  the 
battles  before  Vicksburg,  Grand  Gulf,  Magnolia  Hills, 
Black  River  Bridge,  Champion's  Hill  and  others, 
which  were  all  successfully  fought  against  General 
Pemberton's  Vicksburg  Army,  which  had  come  out 
of  the  trenches  to  meet  Grant's  Army  in  the  .open 
field.  In  the  fight  of  Black  River  Bridge,  where  the 
rebels  had  thrown  up  defensive  works  and  had  moun 
ted  a  large  number  of  heavy  cannons,  the  Thirty- 
Third  with  other  troops,  made  a  remarkable  success-* 
ful  charge  with  very  little  blood-shed,  and  captured 
these  cannons,  which  was  perhaps  the  most  im 
portant  military  feat  of  the  whole  campaign. 

The  battle  of  Champion's  Hill  was  a  last  des 
perate  attempt  on  the  part  of  General  Pemberton's 
army  to  keep  the  Yankees  from  the  rear  of  Vickburg, 
but  all  to  no  avail,  as  General  Grant's  army  soon  com 
pelled  General  Pemberton  to  withdraw  into  the  for 
tifications  and  to  act  entirely  on  the  defensive. 

The  Thirty-Third  boys  in  the  Thirteenth  Army 
Corps  were  among  the  heroes  in  the  awful  charge  on 
the  fortifications  of  Vicksburg  on  the  Twenty-second 
of  May.  The  regiment  suffered  terribly  in  that 
charge.  One  color  bearer  was  killed  and  others 
sustained  the  flag  which  shows,  to  this  day,  blood 
stains  and  bullet  marks,  in  its  repository  in  the  flag 
case  of  the  McLean  County  Historical  Society. 

Company  E,  the  Bureau  County  Company,  went 
into  this  charge  with  thirty-two  men,  eleven  of  whom 
were  killed  and  all  of  the  rest  were  wounded  with 
one  exception — thus  furnishing  an  evidence  of  brav 
ery  not  easily  matched  in  the  record  of  the  Civil  War. 

General  Pemberton's  army  was,  however,  barely 
successful  in  holding  their  works  in  that  awful  day, 
and  from  this  time  until  the  end  of  June,  Grant's 
great  army  prosecuted  the  Siege  of  Vicksburg  with 
the  utmost  heroism,  fighting  and  digging,  enduring 
the  summer's  great  heat  and  holding  back  the  Con 
federate  re-inforcements,  which  in  the  rear  were 
struggling  to  relieve  Pemberton. 

Nothing  in  the  annals  of  the  war,  not  even  the 
events  on  the  Potomac,  or  in  the  famous  battles 
around  Atlanta  and  Chattanooga,  excelled  the  bravery 
and  obstinacy  of  these  famous  battles  around  Vicks 
burg,  during  that  world  famous  Siege  of  Vicksburg, 
which  culminated  in  the  surrender  of  that  strong 
hold  with  its  thirty  thousand  defenders,  on  the  Fourth 
day  of  July,  1863.  This  event,  together  with  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Union  Army  at  Gettysburg  on  the  Third 
and  Fourth  days  of  July  in  the  same  year,  marks  the 
beginning  of  the  down-fall  of  the  Confederate  Army. 

The  history  of  the  Thirty-Third  Regiment  will 
forever  be  associated  with  the  record  of  the  great 


Vicksburg  Campaign,  at  which  time  General  Grant's 
army  reckoned  nearly  one-half  of  its  members  us 
representatives  of  the  great  State  of  Illinois. 

After  considerable  faithful  service  in  guarding 
the  railroads  in  Louisiana  during  the  rest  of  1863  and 
the  most  of  1864,  the  regiment  found  itself  in  Novem 
ber,  1863,  at  Matagorda  Bay  in  Texas.  Here  it  took 
part  in  the  capture  of  Fort  Esperanza,  a  sea  coast 
fort  of  no  particular  consequence,  and  once  more  the 
regiment  was  almost  out  of  the  knowledge  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States.  It  made  itself  heard  from 
however,  even  here,  proving  to  the  country  that  its 
splendid  record  at  Vicksburg  and  other  places  was 
not  to  be  considered  its  total  contribution  to  the  great 
cause. 

By  a  Government  Order  an  important  offer  was 
made  to  all  of  the  old  three  year  regiments,  whose 
full  three  years  lacked  about  six  or  eight  months 
of  expiration,  which  provided  that  if  three-fourths 
of  the  soldiers  of  each  regiment  would  re-enlist  for 
three  years  more,  a  bounty  of  Four  Hundred  Dollars 
each  would  be  given,  together  with  a  thirty  days'  fur 
lough,  to  all  who  should  thus  volunteer,  and  that  the 
new  organization  should  be  called  "Veteran  Volun 
teers." 

The  Thirty-Third  was  then  at  Indianola,  Texas, 
,and  at  once  entered  heartily  into  the  spirit  of  the 
order  and  began  to  perfect  the  new  regimental  or 
ganization. 

We  cannot  say  too  much  in  praise  of  these  sea 
soned  and  well  drilled  soldiers  who  generously  and 
patriotically  re-enlisted  at  that  period.  They  but 
imperfectly  realized  the  immense  importance  and  the 
magnitude  of  their  actions.  The  war  had  progressed 
to  a  point  where  few  valuable  soldiers  could  be  ob 
tained  by  volunteering.  Such  recruits  and  volunteers 
as  were  found  after  the  beginning  of  1863,  were 
generally  obtained  by  the  payment  of  very  large 
bounties.  This  stimulated  what  was  called  "bounty 
jumping"  or  desertion  for  the  sake  of  a  new  enlist 
ment  under  another  name  in  another  state  to  such 
a  degree  that  filling  the  ranks  of  an  old  regiment 
accomplished  very  little  towards  placing  good  sol 
diers  at  the  front. 

The  ranks  of  the  Southern  Army  were,  it  is  trus, 
becoming  rapidly  thinned  by  disease,  desertion 
and  death,  and  conscription  was  failing  to  give  as 
good  results  as  it  had  given  to  this  date.  The  men 
who  remained  in  that  army  now  began  to  realize 
that  their  cause  was  probably  hopeless,  but  the 
desperation  of  the  South  appeared  to  be  about  equal 
to  the  stubborn  resistance  of  the  North.  And  the 
value  of  this  remarkable  addition  of  veteran  volun 
teers  to  the  fighting  strength  of  the  Union  Army  was 
never  fully  realized  until  the  war  was  over.  And  as 
our  people  then  began  to  turn  their  thoughts  away 
from  everything  relating  to  the  war  and  its  horrors, 
it  has  happened  that  the  general  public  never  knew, 
and  never  will  know,  the  full  importance  of  the 
noble  efforts  of  these  veterans  of  1864. 


These  patriotic  volunteers  were  called  veterans, 
and  the  word  veteran  in  1865  meant  one  of  these  re- 
enlisted  heroes.  Now  the  word  is  applied  to  any  old 
soldier,  whether  his  service  was  short  or  long,  and 
it  has  come  about  that  the  veteran  volunteers  of  1864 
and  1865,  who  so  well  deserve  to  be  a  class  by  them 
selves,  are  rarely  considered  worthy  of  any  more 
credit  than  any  other  veterans. 

The  Thirty-Third  Illinois  Veteran  Volunteer  In 
fantry  Regiment  was  mustered  into  the  service  at 
Indianola,  Texas,  on  that  far  off  sandy  coast  January 
7,  1864.  On  February  twenty-eighth,  just  before 
starting  from  New  Orleans  for  their  thirty  days'  fur 
lough  to  their  homes,  they  gave  an  exhibition  drill 
which  won  the  very  highest  commendation  from 
military  officials  of  high  rank. 

They  proceeded  to  Bloomington,  Illinois,  where 
they  were  given  a  grand  reception  by  the  citizens, 
and  from  there  went  to  their  homes,  where  they 
enjoyed  a  well  earned  furlough. 

These  veteran  volunteers  knew  what  it  was  to 
hear  the  whistle  of  rebel  bullets,  to  watch  the  curving 
and  hissing  shells,  to  listen  to  the  roar  of  the  deadly 
artillery,  to  march  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth,  and  see 
their  dearest  comrades  fall  dying  or  wounded  from 
their  advancing  ranks.  They  realized  the  deadliness 
of  the  typhoid  and  malarious  hospitals,  the  irksome- 
ness  of  the  idle  camp,  the  weariness  of  the  forced 
march,  the  suffering  from  cold  and  wet,  and  the 
wearing  weakness  resulting  from  half  rations. 

It  was  one  of  these  same  volunteers  who  wrrote 
the  following: 

"Farewell  to  home;  farewell  to  kindred. 

We  have  pledged  ourselves  for  three  years  more. 
We  will  each  be  in  at  the  death  of  treason, 
Or  perish  in  the  Thirteenth  Army  Corps." 

The  nation  secured  from  this  wonderful  out 
burst  of  patriotism,  in  all  nearly  two  hundred  thou 
sand  of  the  very  cream  of  the  army,  the  very  bravest 
and  best  soldiers  of  that  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
to  which  the  nation  is  so  greatly  indebted. 

It  is  not  over-estimating  the  value  of  this  great 
reinforcement  to  assert  it  as  fully  equal  to  an  addi 
tion  to  the  army  of  more  than  half  million  of  the 
average  membership  of  that  grand  United  States 
Army.  We  need  not  wonder  therefore  that  in  the 
opinion  of  good  judges,  the  re-election  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  the  fall  of  1864,  added  to  this  noble  offer 
ing  on  the  part,  of  our  patriotic  army  in  the  field, 
actually  turned  the  scale  in  favor  of  the  success  of 
our  National  Army. 

The  share  of  the  State  of  Illinois  in  this  Veteran 
Volunteer  organization  represents  seventy  different 
veteran  volunteer  regiments,  and  a  statement  of  this 
whole  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers  of  this 
State,  should  be  fully  and  completely  set  forth  by 
the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society  through  some 
si  i  (  lal  publication,  and  the  Society  will  not  hav<- 
performed  its  full  duty  towards  this  particular  class 


of  its  soldiers,   until   it   shall   have   specifically   and 
properly  performed  this  great  work. 

The  subsequent  service  of  this  regiment  took  place 
mostly  in  Louisiana,  Mississippi  and  Alabama.  It 
participated  in  the  capture  of  Spanish  Fort  at  Mobile 
Bay,  Alabama,  and  performed  much  marching  and 
railroad  guarding.  A  terrible  railroad  accident  near 
Boulte  Station,  Louisiana,  March  2,  1865,  was  as 
severe  upon  the  regiment  as  almost  any  battle  in 
which  it  participated,  no  less  than  eighty  having  been 


killed  or  severely  wounded,  the  deaths  having  been 
about  one-fourth  of  this  number. 

The  flags  carried  by  the  regiment  at  its  muster 
out  at  Springfield  on  Dec.  7,  1865,  were  entitled  to 
bear  the  names  of  the  following  battles:  Frederick- 
town,  Missouri;  Cotton  Plant,  Arkansas;  Fort  Gib 
son;  Magnolia  Hills;  Black  River  Bridge;  Cham 
pion's  Hill;  Charge  on  Vicksburg;  Siege  of  Vicks- 
burg;  Jackson,  Mississippi;  Fort  Esperanza,  Texas; 
Spanish  Fort,  and  Fort  Blakely,  Alabama. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  L 


